It’s a whale tale come to life.
Fortunately for a lobster diver off Cape Cod, his stay in a whale’s mouth was short-lived.
Michael Packard, a Provincetown, Massachusetts diver for the last 40 years, told WBZ that just after jumping off his boat into the water on Friday, he "felt a huge bump and everything went dark." At first, he thought he was being attacked by a shark.
It turned out to be something much bigger.
"And then I felt around and I realized there was no teeth," he told the station. "And then I realized, ‘Oh my God I’m in a whale’s mouth…and he’s trying to swallow me.’"
"Then all of a sudden he went up to the surface and just erupted and started shaking his head," Packard explained. "I just got thrown in the air and landed in the water."
"I was free and I just floated there. I couldn’t believe…I’m here to tell it," he added.
A boat captain floating nearby said Packard is "damn lucky to be alive" after witnessing the incident. Packard initially thought his legs were broken but was able to leave the hospital with a limp later in the day.
It’s estimated Packard was in the whale’s mouth for about 30 seconds.
It’s thought the animal was a humpback whale.
Not everyone was thrilled by the story, however.
Local fisherman find Packard’s whale tale "hard to believe," as reported by the Daily Mail. A doctor at the Cape Cod hospital where Packard was treated told the New York Post he doubted the wild story, pointing to the lobster diver’s lack of serious injury or hearing loss.
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